Stop - It's Time To Cut Out These Unnecessary Fitness Expenses

The term “stupidity tax” was coined as a method of maligning the poor for spending money on lottery tickets. The reality is that the American dream rarely comes true, and the poor have limited opportunities for creating significant wealth. While those from wealthier classes have much more opportunity available, lottery tickets are often the only hope, no matter how astronomically remote, that many have to ever amass riches. And so, they are grasped at for a few dollars as a temporary escape from the crushing reality of seemingly inescapable poverty.

There are many ways for the rest of us to pay “stupidity taxes” in everyday life because we simply don’t understand the reality of how we’re being ripped off. From car undercoatings to extended warranties to overpriced HDMI cables, the market abounds with methods to spend more than you need to while going through life.

But I want to focus specifically on how you’re getting ripped off in terms of health and fitness. Here we go.

1. Buying Organic
I told you there would be butthurt.

For some, organic is like a religion, and this section is gonna piss off some folks plenty. Here is the quick and dirty:

Organic does not mean pesticide-free. In fact, synthetic pesticides are a lot more efficient than natural ones because much less is used and they biodegrade a lot easier. Using so-called natural pesticides requires a much higher amount be used and they’re not any safer. “Natural” does not equate to “harmless.”

It’s not any better for the environment. In fact, because it refuses to use modern technology in favor of far less efficient farming methods, it can actually be worse for the environment. It’s a reality that if we relied solely on organic farming to feed the world, most of us would starve.

There are some who say that organic tastes better, and in some cases, like with strawberries, this might be true. Considering that organic usually costs around 30% more, it’s an individual choice to decide if it’s worth the cost.

Organic is about selling fear. Academics Review looked at over 100 published and market research studies and determined that the $63 billion market for organic food is all an endeavor in selling people on a concept of food safety.

Because in order to justify spending a lot more money on organic, people need to believe that non-organic food isn’t safe. And thus, a campaign of fear — what Academics Review referred to as a “multi-decade public disinformation campaign” — has misled consumers and created a thriving marketplace for privileged people to pay their stupidity tax.

2. Personal Trainer Dependence
I am a friend to many excellent personal trainers who can elevate your training to a new level, help you reach your goals, alleviate pain, make you stronger, leaner, faster … all kinds of good stuff.

Yet it is a market where the buyer must beware, because some trainers suck while also sucking tons of money out of your wallet. Often, these are trainers who work for a large, franchise fitness center who have sales quotas to meet. There is one large gym chain that pitches every new customer with $10,000 per year of personal training, regardless of what that person’s needs actually are. They will actually refuse to train anyone for less than a multi-thousand dollar package because it doesn’t have the necessary return on investment for them. Those two or three free sessions are often all about telling you everything that’s “wrong” with you in preparation for the hard sell of thousands of dollars’ worth of training in order to “fix” all your “problems.”

Big box franchise gyms are heavily dependent upon selling as much personal training as possible in order to stay in business. They favor their trainers far more for their sales skills than their ability to actually train their clients well. These trainers operate by keeping their clients figuratively (and sometimes literally) off balance with ever-changing and silly exercise regimens so the client comes to believe they always need something new and complicated in order to improve. The trainers also train their clients in such a way that does not help the client gain independence in terms of exercising.

The last thing these trainers want is for their client to learn how to live without them.